Wednesday, 26 February 2014

Have to thank Benjamin on my Monmouth Rebellion FB page for passing on info on this new publication by John Childs. The blurb reads

General Percy Kirke (c. 1647-91) is remembered in Somerset as a
cruel, vicious thug who deluged the region in blood after the Battle of
Sedgemoor in 1685. He is equally notorious in Northern Ireland.
Appointed to command the expedition to raise the Siege of Londonderry in
1689, his assumed treachery nearly resulted in the city’s fall and he
was made to look ridiculous when the blockade was eventually lifted by a
few sailors in a rowing boat. Yet Kirke was closely involved in some of
the most important events in British and Irish history. He served as
the last governor of the colony of Tangier; played a central role in
facilitating the Glorious Revolution of 1688; and fought in the majority
of the principal actions and campaigns undertaken by the newly-formed
standing armies in England, Ireland and Scotland, especially the Battle
of the Boyne and the first Siege of Limerick in 1689.

With the
aid of his own earlier work in the field, additional primary sources and
a recently-rediscovered letter book, John Childs looks beyond the
fictionalisation of Kirke, most notably by R. D. Blackmore in Lorna Doone,
to investigate the historical reality of his career, character,
professional competence, politics and religion. As well as offering
fresh, detailed narratives of such episodes as Monmouth’s Rebellion, the
conspiracies in 1688 and the Siege of Londonderry, this pioneering
biography also presents insights into contemporary military personnel,
patronage, cliques and procedures.

The drawback is the price - cheapest place I have seen it is on Google books where there are a few extracts.